Wednesday, 12 October 2011

The curious incident of the fox in the night-time.....

After the previous night's chicken murder, I decided to be a little more careful with our remaining chicken just in case the fox should return. As the chicken run area is covered I don't normally shut the little gate of the chicken coup but last night I decided to go for a 'belt and braces' approach and, on returning from cycling club at 9pm, I shut the little gate as our remaining poultry had already gone in to roost.....

It was a fairly late night and at about 12.15am Ellie and I decided we really needed to turn in for the night....when we got to the bathroom we picked up our toothbrushes, and were suddenly aware of a very loud scratching noise coming through the upstairs window from the garden area....

"Ahha", we thought, "Foxy Loxy has returned - You won't get in this time !!!"

I rushed for a torch and we watched carefully through the bathroom window for about 10 minutes scanning the area by torchlight...the scratching continued periodically but there was no sign of any assailant on the front/side of the coup....we needed to venture out into the garden....

...so very silently we snuck out of the back door with the torch light now quenched and on tip toes holding our toothbrushes as weapons dressed in our night attire....it was now 12.30am...

When we got to the back end of the garden I quickly put on the torch and aimed it at the back of the coup....but still there was no sign of any attacker and the scratching noise seemed to have stopped....so cautiously we approached the back door of the coup. Thinking the poor remaining chicken would be scared witless by now, we thought it best to check on the condition of our remaining bird....so carefully opened the back door of the hutch and shined the light inside....

This is what we saw by torchlight inside the coup:-

You can probably guess on the condition of dear Betty who was also inside the coup (I thought it best to photoshop her carcass out of the picture!)